Bitterroot Quilter's Guild Show, etc...

Finally summer has arrived here in Montana. We had a very wet spring and there is still lots of snow in the mountains. Now it is melting off and causing streams and rivers to run very swift and high. My husband and son are backpacking this weekend near one of these swollen streams so I'm hoping they are staying safe and dry. I have been busy helping with the Bitterroot Quilters' Guild Quilt Show in Hamilton. I helped hang the postcard challenge yesterday and then counted viewer's choice ballots today. Tomorrow I will help man the Silent Auction area. I donated three pieces to the auction and hope that whoever gets them will enjoy them. It is one way that those who can't usually afford my pieces can get them for a reasonable price---not that my prices aren't "reasonable"!!

I stopped by the Art City Gallery to see how my solo show was doing and saw that one more piece has sold so I was very happy about that. The gentleman manning the gallery this afternoon said that a woman who was just in was admiring one particular piece and hoping her husband might buy it for her for her birthday or something. Those comments rarely come to fruition, but at least there are people interested in the work and enjoying it. I hope to sell at least a couple more pieces before the show ends July 31.

I heard today that the Missoulian newspaper hopes to do a story in the July First Friday arts and entertainment section about our Trunk Show at Montana Art and Framing. That will be great publicity for us and maybe we'll get a good crowd at the First Friday reception that month. I was really hoping that the newspaper would discover the show and write up something about it. I hope they get some good photos. Can't wait to see the story!

Two of my pieces were just accepted to the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma, Washington which is 8/26-28. I also had a piece just accepted to the Northern National Quilt Competition in Wisconsin which is a fine art show--my first. I guess this area of Wisconsin has lots of cottages where people from Chicago and Milwaukee go to vacation. This is the 24th show so it is well established and hopefully well attended. They have some cash prizes, but I would like to sell my piece and I haven't really heard how well they sell from this show. It gets to be very costly entering all these shows, so winning or selling something and getting a cash award is very helpful.

As soon as the quilt show is over tomorrow I'll be getting started on a new piece. I have some fabrics up on the design wall but I'm not feeling very excited about them so might move to something else. I have a lovely piece of hand-dyed fabric with a manipulated digital image that I transferred onto it using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and it is very interesting. I have already chosen some fabrics and been pondering how to proceed with this piece. There is a great deal of detail in the photo image and I'm thinking that threadwork might distract from the wonderful image so I might end up doing some simplistic stitching in that area with monofilament or at least a thread that really blends with the background. Haven't figured out anything as far as the design yet, but I'm thinking that as soon as the quilt show is done my head will be freed up for some more creative thinking!

Speaking of the quilt show, it is a wonderful one. There are extremely talented and skilled quilters in the Bitterroot Valley of all types from traditional to innovative to art quilters. Our featured quilter is Jeanne Doyle who is 86 and does beautiful traditional and innovative pieces with great skill and wonderful color sense. I probably enjoyed her exhibit more than any other featured quilter I have ever seen. Wonderful work. There are also many other great quilts in the show and voting was a real challenge---for me and many others. It is a privilege to be a part of this guild.

I just looked out to the south west and the sky is blue, purple, pink and slightly orange with streaks of clouds. Then out the other window is my garden bursting with huge orange poppies in full bloom. I love living where we do and being able to enjoy the Rocky Mountains out my front window and the beautiful Montana skies and landscapes out every other window in my house. I don't get out into the woods as much as I should these days but I think I will try to go more in the next few months. It is inspirational to walk among wildflowers, Ponderosa Pine trees, and huckleberry bushes and enjoy the sounds of birds in the trees. Getting some exercise would be a good thing too! Having a passion that is basically sedentary doesn't do much for the figure. And I have a 30th reunion coming up soon so I guess I better get started now!!

Trying To Move On....

After opening two shows this month and with all the cloudy, rainy weather we've been having, I'm having a difficult time getting myself back into the swing of creating. I have two more shows coming up in August and September so I need to create some new works for those. I did just complete a challenge quilt for the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma and tonight I finished my postcard challenge piece for our local Bitterroot Quilt Guild's show next weekend. Now I'm ready to start a new piece. But here I sit on the computer not in my studio!

I sold two small pieces at the opening reception of my show at Art City in Hamilton. Here are pics of the two pieces. They were both small but lovely little works and I will miss them, as I do many of my quilts when they go!

Nature's Palette I:

In The Pines - Detail of Thread-painted branches/needles:

In The Pines - The pine branches on the bottom and right are threadpainted over a stamped image and the one on the left (in the detail above) were created free-hand.

In April the Art City Gallery had a "Recycled Art Show" and in the spirit of recycling our project for the Tarts class was to use plastic shopping bags to create a sort of "fabric". You layer 3-5 layers of plastic bags and fuse them together with your iron between two applique pressing sheets. Then they can be cut up and used however you like and there were quite a number of unique uses. I just used mine as fabric and then chose complimentary fabrics and found items to create three fiber art pieces. The embellishments and most of the fabric are all things that were given to me or found or from past projects.

Refuse II: Rescue

Refuse I: Transformation

Refuse III: Gathering

If I don't get back in my studio to create some new pieces, these may be in one of my next two shows!

The "Trunk" Show

The art group I belong to has chosen a name: Montana Bricolage Artists (MBA). "Bricolage" (brēkō'lä zh) is defined as a construction or creation made from a diverse range of available things. We needed to finally commit to a name for the marketing of our first fiber art exhibition which is called The "Trunk" Show. The pieces are long narrow fiber works meant to portray tree trunks in any form, style, or techniques that the artists wished to use. We hope to hang as many of the pieces as possible suspended freely instead of against the wall so that you can have the experience of walking through the "forest" of trees. I have seen most of the finished works and I can tell you it is going to be a beautiful show. We are premiering this exhibition of approximately 25 pieces at Montana Art and Framing and the opening reception is June 10 from 5pm-9pm. The show will be there until the end of July. We will be seeking out other venues and hope to get it exhibited several more times in the next two years. Tentatively it will be in Billings in the spring of 2012 at the same time that the Creative Forces exhibit is there which is a Studio Art Quilts Associates exhibition. I hope that if you are anywhere in the Missoula area in June and July you will stop by Montana Art and Framing at 709 Ronan Street in Missoula (406-541-7100) and see our show. I believe that you will find it an experience to remember.

We are currently working on a postcard and will be designing some kind of poster/flier for marketing our show. We have a work session planned for later this month in order to prepare all the pieces for hanging at the gallery and finalize our reception plans. There are a lot of details to organize for an effort like this and we are all new to the process so we are hoping it goes smoothly. The best thing about it is the universal enthusiasm for the theme of trees. Particularly in this Rocky Mountain region in the midst of mountains, wilderness, and nature we are inspired by trees and fascinated by their endless variety, beauty and majesty.

Also in June and July I will have my solo exhibition at Art City Gallery (407 W. Main St., Hamilton, MT) with an opening reception on June 3. The show is entitled: Art Quilts: Images of Nature. I know, I know, rather trite, but it is what it is and I felt it a fitting title for my work.
Here is my postcard image for that show to intrigue you into coming!

I just received notice this week that one of my pieces, "A Twist of Lime, A Pinch of Purple" will be exhibited at the AQS Knoxville quilt show in Tennessee which is a new part of the country for me. I was pleasantly surprised for this quilt to be accepted to this large show. I have shown this piece a number of times and it can look very beautiful or rather unremarkable depending on how it is displayed. Let's hope it is hung well in Tennessee with nice lighting! The color in this quilt is very lovely and the unique setting of the log cabin blocks is interesting. I hope viewers enjoy it.

I am waiting to hear from a few shows including the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma and Larkin Van Horn's "Deep Spaces" exhibition. I'm currently working on a couple of new pieces for my Art City show and today I bravely cut many holes in one of them and am now backing them with contrasting fabric and satin stitching the edges. I think it will work nicely.

Off to the studio...

Art as a Business

Before I get to some more serious discussion, here are a couple of small pieces for you to ogle. The first is a fairly recent piece that is completely hand stitched and beaded. I worked on it in small bits of time over a year or so. It was the piece I took with me when I needed some handwork to do at my weekly casual quilt group gathering. It is rather heavy with beads and embroidery floss! The title is: "With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells"

Here is another piece I did fairly recently which sold right away at River's Mist Gallery to our local newspaper owner. It is called "Haiku" because of its somewhat oriental feel and it is a small, simple piece. It received a lot of nice comments when it hung in the gallery.

I have a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and one in Hotel Administration so I have taken my share of marketing and business classes. I am currently not working a 9 to 5 job where I would apply my education, but I find that I am using many of the skills for marketing and promoting my art and myself in the art/quilting community.

I have been successful in getting my work into 8 different area galleries over the past few years and I am continuously showing work in three of them. I prepare paperwork to keep inventory records of what I take and pick up from these venues, I have images of all my work so I have a record of what it looks like, I make up price tags and artist statements and sometimes prepare an artist profile for these various venues, I rotate my work in and out every month or so to keep them fresh, I have insurance coverage for my work and I claim all my art-related expenses and income on my taxes. This serious business!

I spend quite a bit of time organizing my inventory of work for preparing show entries and determining what can be entered where and what is available or in galleries. This is a very complicated task since each show has different requirements for size, type, deadlines for entry and length of commitment for the quilts, and some need the quilts to be for sale so they are then unavailable for entry to later shows until that show is over. I have a good inventory of pieces and I enter quite a few shows, so keeping track of what is available for a particular show can be difficult. My husband is in the process of creating a database for me that might help with this, but I don't think it will eliminate all of the issues. Some of the decisions I have to make are purely subjective like trying to find a piece to fit a theme or style of show.

I try to keep my website and blog updated but haven't been as prompt with that as I should be. I have a slow dial-up computer connection and that makes it a chore to upload images to my blog and even get in and out of the management site for it. I am hoping to keep more current with my blog and vary my topics so that readers might actually feel like they get something out of it. I've tended to go on about my accomplishments more than anything else! I'd rather start sharing some knowledge about how I create my art and run my business.

I have done some lectures and some trunk shows and a few small mini-classes and have found these things rewarding and fun---although I do get very nervous. I am trying to decide about whether to pursue the teaching thing right now and am leaning towards devoting time to writing instead of teaching. Maybe down the road I'll feel more comfortable charging people money to learn something from me, but now I don't feel I can devote the time and effort into it that will make it worth what I want to charge. I'd rather be creating! And writing I can do in little bits of time that I have available as opposed to the intense preparation of materials and curriculum for a successful class. I think I'm just not ready to be a teacher quite yet, but I'm still debating this.

Donating

"Oxygen"
[leaves dangle from beaded strands]

It is an interesting proposition when you are deciding to donate work to various causes. I have recently given several pieces to my church and will soon be selecting some for my guild's silent auction at their show in June as well. The pieces I gave to the church are for their fundraising efforts at the annual Outdoorsfest they sponsor. I had to ponder what to give based on whether the pieces were to be given out as "door prizes" randomly or if people would be bidding on them as auction pieces. It would be too bad for someone to get a quilt who had no use for it or interest in it. I know that I am giving them up and whatever happens to them is really none of my concern now, but it still would be sad!

When I give them to a guild effort I know that whoever wins the piece or buys the piece will likely enjoy it so that is not as difficult. The pieces are not usually my best or most sellable ones but they are nice pieces that I feel comfortable using to represent me and my work. I don't want to give them really bad pieces that I don't think are any good, but I don't want to give up my most sellable or show-worthy pieces either. And larger pieces are difficult for most people to find room for in their homes so I usually give small pieces.

Here is one of the quilts I gave to my church. It is one I made last fall that I really like and felt that it fit in with the outdoor theme of the event. It is called "Flyway".

This next quilt is one my mom wanted to buy from me so I gave it to her. I really like the abstract imagery of this piece that really has a lot of feeling and evokes memories for me. I really enjoy creating pieces that are very abstract in nature but definitely are suggestive of something real. This one works for me.

Friday evening (May 6) is the opening of the Bitterroot Artist's Showcase sponsored by SASS (Stevensville Art and Sculpture Society) at River's Mist Gallery. The reception will be from 6-9pm so please join us!

Back to the studio to churn out some more work for my upcoming solo exhibit at Art City!

Exhibitions and Activities

I just completed a quilt for entry into the “Deep Spaces” exhibition being organized by Larkin Van Horn. I am very happy with how the piece turned out and very hopeful that it will get into the show. She is an artist that I greatly admire and I like the theme she chose. I'm sure there will be great competition, so I'm just hoping that my images can compete. The piece I made has three large cutouts and two layers added behind the cutouts to create depth and interest. It also has fabric leaves dangling from seed bead strands. Both of these techniques are ones that I use quite frequently in my work and really enjoy experimenting with. This was a rather dramatic experience for me in regards to the cutouts because they are so large. It is an interesting experience to cut large holes in a quilt that you have just spent a good deal of time creating, layering and quilting! Luckily I think it turned out well and if the piece does not make it into the show I will be happy to show it locally in one of the shows I have set for this year.

I found out recently that one of my pieces, “Glorious Leaves”, will be traveling with the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) exhibition entitled “Sense of Adventure”. It will be first exhibited at the Houston International Quilt Festival which is very exciting. They are publishing a catalog for the show so that will be my first time having that experience. This piece incorporates some of my shibori dyed fabric and some hand embroidery along with the thread-painted leaves and extensive machine quilting.

"Glorious Leaves"

I am busy creating new pieces for my June/July solo exhibition at Art City in Hamilton, Montana. I just finished creating an image for a postcard. I was happy to be able to figure out how to collage some images together and put them on a black background and I am happy with the result. The show will open on First Friday, June 6 so if you are in the area please join me and see some new and some not so new work! Also, if you are in that area in May the Recycled Art Show is still up and there are some interesting pieces there. I have 3 quilts in the show made with plastic shopping bags fused together and combined with fabric and some other found or re-purposed items. It was a fun project to work on, but plastic is not my favorite medium!

Last Wednesday I gave a presentation to the Bitterroot Quilter's Guild about my work and inspiration and it went very well. I had lots of nice comments and it is always good to have it reinforced how supportive they all are of my work. I think I was able to combine a little bit of education and information with some eye candy to make everyone happy! Now I am ready to do more programs like that for other guilds or fiber art groups in the region. Will have to look into that.... Will also have to work on reducing my nervousness. My mouth started drying up as soon as I got into the car to drive to the guild meeting and continued all the way until I was done with the program!

Ready to start a new piece tomorrow after I attend my son's final field trip of the year to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Missoula. His school is getting out early this year (May 6) because of construction on the campus, so I'll have to work around him in getting new work ready for my show. I'm sure he'll be able to occupy himself for part of the day and let me get some things done although I will definitely not have the nice uninterrupted big blocks of time that I have when he is in school. It's ok---I enjoy having him around and taking him with me wherever I have to go as he is well-behaved and usually doesn't mind going places.

Next week is my 48th birthday and I'm starting to think about that milestone coming up—50! Boy, I don't feel that old. Hopefully 50 is the halfway point since people seem to live longer and longer these days. I guess I'll have to get myself out from behind my sewing machine and get some more exercise so I can have one of those long lives too!!

Judging and Jurying

I just got my quilt, "Twilight", back from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival out in Hampton, Virginia. The comments from the judges were good, but I did not get an award. It is nice to get feedback from these nationally known teachers/judges about your work and I find it worthwhile to enter these shows for that reason. Here is what they said:

"Beading is very effective. Juxtaposition of quilting designs is interesting. We like the use of textured fabric. Stitch techniques (and we are nitpicking here) needs to be neater--watch your binding."

I usually get comments about my stitching since I'm not a perfectionist in that regard. I usually do try to make neat bindings, and I think this one is pretty good, so I'm not sure exactly what they mean. I always wish I could be there to hear their discussion about my work and get even more hints on why a piece is not a "winner". I believe that usually for me it is my lack of perfectionism that puts me out of the running. Sometimes I'd like to know where I was in the standings---did I get out right away or was I considered for an award and bumped out because of my stitching.......? Always all these questions cross my mind and make me wish I was a fly on the wall!

This weekend I am driving to Billings, Montana for their retreat and quilt show (I'm not participating in the retreat). I entered three pieces in their show just to get my work to other side of the state and see what people think. I'm staying with a friend for a couple of nights and hope to "peddle my wares" to a gallery or two while I'm there. I'll take some of my work with me as I always do and see if anyone has time to take a look. It has worked before!

Next week I'm taking a design workshop with Lyric Kinard here in Hamilton and I'm really looking forward to that. It is rare that we get anyone of her caliber in our rather rural setting so it is a great opportunity. No matter what she was teaching I would have signed up!

The local gallery where I show my work, River's Mist, is having a show this month of artwork from Stevensville Highschool students and it is a very nice show. If you are in the area I recommend you stop in to what these young people are doing. You will be impressed. Many of us in the community thank Gretchen, the proprietor of River's Mist, for hosting shows like this. She is very supportive of local artists and we greatly appreciate it!

I have two of my pieces on www.infinityartgallery.com which is a site that sponsors on-line art show competitions. The pieces in the Spring Expo will be out there in this "pre-exhibit" until the juror chooses the winners and then those will be there through April. There is quite a variety of art there so evaluating it must a difficult job. Take a look and see how you think my fiber art compares....